A woman who was present in a six-hour shootout with the police in Qormi in 2005 told a court today how the man who allegedly did the shooting told her that he wanted to die 'like Scarface'

Yanika Abdilla, the former girlfriend of Marco Pace said she remembered him holding a machine gun with one hand and a shotgun with another as he held  policemen at bay from his house in Mill Street, Qormi.

Abdilla was testifying in the trial by jury of Mario Vella, who is accused of having been an accomplice in the shooting at the police on February 15,2005. Marco Pace is still awaiting trial.

Abdilla said she had been in the house in Mill Street with Pace, Vella and Kelly Micallef (who has since died of a drug overdose)

Despite being Pace's live-in girlfriend, she felt more like a slave. Their lives were dominated by cocaine. He would not let her out and used to beat her and shoot at her.  

'I was basically his maid, his slave, and the payment was drugs', she said.

She was so high on cocaine that she could not even keep urine.

In the two months before the incident they used to consume 100 grams of cocaine every two days.

Vella had started living with them and Pace also used to treat him as a slave, although he told him he loved him as a son.

Pace used to suffer paranoia about the police, to the extent that he used to lift Vella up high to check that there were no policemen on top or behind the cupboards.

Abdilla said that on February 14, Valentine's Day, Pace and Kelly Micallef locked her in the kitchen while they had sex in the bedroom. She was so angry with Kelly that she wanted to punch her face in.

On the day of the incident they had a breakfast of cocaine and Vodka.

Abdilla said  the incident in the evening did not start because Pace's mother would not let him garage a boat, as had been claimed. What had happened was that she had phoned him, but then cut off without saying 'bye'.

He became angry and went to her house, nearby, holding a hammer, with which he started banging on the door. His father, who was on the balcony drinking a beer, got frightened and dropped the beer bottle. Pace thought he had thrown the bottle at him, so he went back to his home, produced a shotgun and shot at his parents' house.

As the police arrived and surrounded the house, Pace  told her that he wanted to die like Scarface - he was obsessed by that film.

She remembered him holding a machine gun in one hand and a shotgun in the other. He also had other guns, pistols and knives in the bedroom.

Throughout the shootout he kept on smoking cocaine.

She remembered running across the house, covering the windows with wet blankets to keep out the tear gas being fired by the police. At one time she remembered Pace firing at the flyover (where some police had taken position). She also remembered Kelly Micallef holding a sock full of bullets which she handed to Pace.

Then all four went on the roof. While the others were at the back, she went to the front and shouted to the police that he wanted to throw her over.

They then went inside. Kelly Micallef swallowed some pills and 'fell asleep'. Pace continued taking drugs as the police came in through the courtyard. She remembered that when Vella was arrested, his face was punched in by several officers.

The trial continues.